Yemen's Hadi rejects UN-proposed peace deal
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Yemen's president in exile has turned down a UN peace deal aimed at ending the country's devastating conflict, saying it "rewards" Yemen's rebels. The proposed peace deal gives Shiite rebels—who seized the capital in 2014 and eventually forced President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi out of Yemen—a share in the future government. It also reduces some of the president's powers in exchange for a rebel withdrawal from major cities.
Hadi made his remarks during a visit by the UN Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Saturday. The statement said Hadi told Ahmed that peace is only attainable when the rebel "coup" is reversed, based on a UN Security Council resolution that stipulates the rebels must lay down their weapons and withdraw from cities as a precondition to any peace agreement.
The conflict in Yemen has left more than 10,000 dead and injured and displaced nearly 3 million people. The Arab world's poorest nation had already been suffering from high rates of malnutrition, and the war and a blockade imposed by a Saudi-led military coalition has pushed the country deeper into starvation and turmoil.
